City orchard brings new life to vacant Vancouver lot

Zoe McKnight, Vancouver Sun07.07.2013

Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson (left) and Solefood’s Michael Ableman (right) talk with reporters, on July 7, as they open an urban orchard on a vacant Vancouver lot at Main & Terminal.Ward Perrin
/ PNG

Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson (right) and Solefood’s Michael Ableman (left) plant a fruit tree, on July 7, as they open an urban orchard on a vacant Vancouver lot at Main & Terminal.Ward Perrin
/ PNG

Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson (left) and Solefood’s Michael Ableman (right) plant a fruit tree, on July 7, as they open an urban orchard on a vacant Vancouver lot at Main & Terminal.Ward Perrin
/ PNG

Solefood has opened the largest North American urban orchard, on July 7, on a vacant Vancouver lot at Main & Terminal.The orchard will have up to 400 fruit trees.Ward Perrin
/ PNG

The bees have already arrived at Solefood’s new urban orchard located on a vacant Vancouver lot at Main & Terminal.Ward Perrin
/ PNG

Solefood’s carrots and produce, on July 7, at the opening of the urban orchard at Main & Terminal.Ward Perrin
/ PNG

Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson (left) and Solefood’s Michael Ableman (right) talk with reporters, on July 7, as they open an urban orchard on a vacant Vancouver lot at Main & Terminal.Ward Perrin
/ PNG

The bees have arrived, on July 7, at Solefood’s new urban orchard located on a vacant Vancouver lot at Main & Terminal.Ward Perrin
/ PNG

Solefood’s carrots and produce, on July 7, at the opening of the urban orchard at Main & Terminal.Ward Perrin
/ PNG

Solefood has opened the largest North American urban orchard, on July 7, on a vacant Vancouver lot at Main & Terminal.Ward Perrin
/ PNG

Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson (left) and Solefood’s Michael Ableman (right) plant a fruit tree, on July 7, as they open an urban orchard on a vacant Vancouver lot at Main & Terminal.Ward Perrin
/ PNG

Solefood has opened the largest North American urban orchard, on July 7, on a vacant Vancouver lot at Main & Terminal.The orchard will have up to 400 fruit trees.Ward Perrin
/ PNG

Vancouver Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson has a bite of a Solefood’s carrot, on July 7, as he helps open an urban orchard at Main & Terminal.Ward Perrin
/ PNG

Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson (left) and Solefood’s Michael Ableman (right) talk with reporters, on July 7, as they open an urban orchard on a vacant Vancouver lot at Main & Terminal.Ward Perrin
/ PNG

Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson (left) and Solefood’s Michael Ableman (right) talk with reporters, on July 7, as they open an urban orchard on a vacant Vancouver lot at Main & Terminal.Ward Perrin
/ PNG

Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson (left) and Solefood’s Michael Ableman (right) plant a fruit tree, on July 7, as they open an urban orchard on a vacant Vancouver lot at Main & Terminal.Ward Perrin
/ PNG

Vancouver Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson has a bite of a Solefood’s carrot, on July 7, as he helps open an urban orchard at Main & Terminal.Ward Perrin
/ PNG

Solefood has opened the largest North American urban orchard, on July 7, on a vacant Vancouver lot at Main & Terminal.Ward Perrin
/ PNG

Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson (left) and Solefood’s Michael Ableman (right) talk with reporters, on July 7, as they open an urban orchard on a vacant Vancouver lot at Main & Terminal.Ward Perrin
/ PNG

Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson (right) and Solefood’s Michael Ableman (left) walk with reporters, on July 7, as they open an urban orchard on a vacant Vancouver lot at Main & Terminal.Ward Perrin
/ PNG

Solefood has opened the largest North American urban orchard, on July 7, on a vacant Vancouver lot at Main & Terminal.The orchard will have up to 400 fruit trees.Ward Perrin
/ PNG

VANCOUVER -- A forgotten brownfield at the corner of urban and industrial is not the place you’d expect to find lemon, fig and persimmon trees bearing fruit.

But in three to five years, over 400 trees planted on a vacant lot at Main Street and Terminal Avenue should do just that in what the City of Vancouver is calling the largest urban orchard in North America.

The orchard is run by Solefood co-founder Michael Ableman, who with partner Seann Dory already grows produce on nearly five acres scattered across downtown Vancouver. Their projects combine food security and locavorism (locavore is a recently coined word for a person who eats mainly locally grown food) with social enterprise by hiring and training mostly residents of the Downtown Eastside to work the land at four different sites. Salad greens, tomatoes and peppers are then harvested and sold to local restaurants, at farmers markets and donated to other agencies.

In the latest initiative, Solefood is leasing for $1 a year the city-owned lot that used to be a gas station and has been vacant for a decade. Each tree is grown in individual black plastic containers, which solves the problems particular to the site: the property value is rising in the rapidly changing neighbourhood and the land under the trees is too contaminated to grow food. A forklift can move the containers if the city decides to sell or develop the land in the future — and healthy soil is isolated from toxic.

“What you are seeing are not only extremely unusual types of tree crops, but on a density and a scale that, to my knowledge does not exist anywhere in North America,” said Ableman during a tour of the new site on Sunday. Besides quince, Meyer lemons, French butter pears, Santa Rosa plums and other crops, culinary herbs like basil, oregano and rosemary have also been planted in half the 800 containers and will yield a return this summer.

Ableman, a longtime farmer and urban agriculture advocate, said he’s been mulling the idea of an orchard for 35 years, but it came together over the past year and with a $50,000 Greenest City grant from city hall.

The “out of the box” approach Solefood has taken in Vancouver involves some risk-taking, Ableman said, but he believes it is creating a new model for growing food in a dense urban environment.

“Vancouver is happy to be leading on urban farming, and setting an example to other cities. Many are looking at next steps and how to get more food grown in the city, how to create more jobs on land that can’t be used otherwise,” said Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson, who was on hand for the tour and to sample some carrots grown at the Solefood lot on Pacific Boulevard at Carrall Street.

“Vancouver is well-positioned on that front to influence other cities around the world. This is high leverage of land around our city that otherwise we wouldn’t get anything from,” Robertson said. The city has no immediate plans to sell the land but Robertson left the door open to future development or leasing.

There are several other city-run orchards — in Falaise, Gaston and Slocan parks — and there are plans to plant at least seven more by 2020 as part of the Greenest City Action Plan.

Potentially teach tree could produce 200 to 400 pounds of fruit a year in about five years. The sub-tropical species will be covered in the winter and warmed with strings of lights during cold spells.

Warmer winters on the south coast in recent years has meant some of these species can easily survive a West Coast winter, and the Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium predicts a two-degree increase in temperature and 20 more frost-free days by 2070.

“It’s an innovative way to capitalize on climate change, too. We’re seeing species from further south possible to grow here in Vancouver,” Robertson said.

Comments

We encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keep your comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visit our FAQ page for more information.

Saskatoon loves its Christmas lights. The Enchanted Forest draws thousands of vehicles each week. The late Bob Hinitt worked for months building his light display, which drew thousands of cars each year to Wiggins Avenue. And Scott Lambie on Clinkskill Drive has continued the tradition with more than 70,000 dancing lights (up from 50,000 last […]

When it comes to gift giving, they say it’s the thought that counts. But many are wondering if Mayor Drew Dilkens was thinking at all when he gave Olympic superstar Michael Phelps — whose battles with booze are well known — a big bottle of Canadian Club whisky.

Almost Done!

Postmedia wants to improve your reading experience as well as share the best deals and promotions from our advertisers with you. The information below will be used to optimize the content and make ads across the network more relevant to you. You can always change the information you share with us by editing your profile.

By clicking "Create Account", I hearby grant permission to Postmedia to use my account information to create my account.

I also accept and agree to be bound by Postmedia's Terms and Conditions with respect to my use of the Site and I have read and understand Postmedia's Privacy Statement. I consent to the collection, use, maintenance, and disclosure of my information in accordance with the Postmedia's Privacy Policy.

Postmedia wants to improve your reading experience as well as share the best deals and promotions from our advertisers with you. The information below will be used to optimize the content and make ads across the network more relevant to you. You can always change the information you share with us by editing your profile.

By clicking "Create Account", I hearby grant permission to Postmedia to use my account information to create my account.

I also accept and agree to be bound by Postmedia's Terms and Conditions with respect to my use of the Site and I have read and understand Postmedia's Privacy Statement. I consent to the collection, use, maintenance, and disclosure of my information in accordance with the Postmedia's Privacy Policy.